Transcript of Rob, Kristen & Bill Condon’s EW interview

“Auuuugh! This is sooo weird,” cries Kristen Stewart. It’s a sunny Thursday afternoon in San Diego, and the 21-year-old actress is tucked into a sofa beside Twilight Saga costar (and never-confirmed-but-obvious boyfriend) Robert Pattinson, 25. The actors, along with Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) — the director of the final two installments of the franchise, Breaking Dawn–Part 1 and 2 (in theaters Nov. 18, 2011, and November 2012) — are relaxing with coffee in a quiet hotel suite after a busy Comic-Con morning. Or at least they were till Entertainment Weekly started reading aloud from Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, 2008 best-seller that’s the basis for the two movies. “It’s just so strange, I can’t get over it,” Stewart says of hearing the words she guesses she’s read “thousands” of times, now that production on both parts of Breaking Dawn has wrapped.
But if you want to talk strange, just consider what takes place in the upcoming movie: Bella and Edward’s long-awaited wedding and (even longer-awaited) passionate honeymoon consummation: Bella’s pregnancy with half-vampire baby, who grows at an accelerated rate and puts her life in danger; JAcob mysterious relationship with the unborn baby; and an entirely gruesome and bloody birth that results in Bella’s death (sorta). So we asked Condon, Stewart, and Pattinson to listen to the words that began it all, and to share their thoughts and feelings — no matter how weird they may be.The WeddingBut I tore my eyes from the bowery canopy and searched across the rows of satin-draped chairs — blushing more deeply as I took in the crowd of faces all focused on me –until I found him at last, standing before an arch overflowing with more flowers, more gossamer.Bill Condon: Kristen has this list. (Turns to Kristen) I don’t know if you highlighted things in the script or anything, but it was like, “These are the scenes I’m afraid of.”Kristen Stewart: I didn’t highlight them, I just knew.Condon: I never quite gotit. I had my own scenes I was afraid of — like how do you do a scene with 27 vampires in a room this big? — but the wedding wasn’t one of them. But then I understood it. It was that responsibility of being able to express everything that Bella feels.Stewart: That whole part of the book is something that I read thousands of times. It was oddly emotional the first time I got to set and saw everything and everybody.Robert Pattinson: Yeah, you were really sweet when you first showed up.Stewart: Oh, shush.Pattinson: I did my scenes first. And I was looking at you, and you kind of didn’t want anyone to see your face. It was funny, I could see her getting sort of emotionally affected by it and I almost didn’t want to stay at the end of the aisle. I wanted to go down and say, “Stop being ridiculous.” (Laughs)Stewart: I wanted to run down the aisle. I was literally pulling away from Billy (Burke, who plays her father). Now it’s a trip to watch the wedding scenes especially. It was so volatile and emotional — I was being such a crazy person.

HoneymoonWhat had happened to me? I count make sense of the fluffy white snow that clung to my skin. I shook my head, and a cascade of white drifted out of my hair. I pinched one soft white bit between my fingers. It was a piece of down. “Why am I covered in feathers?”Condon: What you just read follows them just starting to kiss in the water. Basically there’s a big fade-out in between.
But you decided to put in an actual sex scene.Condon: Oh, yes.Stewart: Imagine if you didn’t? Oh my goodness, no way. Of course we had to have that.
And the feathers, of course, are important because Edward rips the pillows apart in the heat of passion.Pattinson: I wanted to have it as a line so much. (be an American/Edward accent) “I bit through all the pillows. Every. Single. One.” And then he’d start crying. By the way, that’s what he should be ashamed of in the morning. All those beautiful pillows! Egyptian cotton! (Laughs) “I ruined this bed!”

Bella Chooses LifeEdward had just called my little nudger a thing. He said Carlisle would get it out. “No,” I whispered. I’d gotten it wrong before. He didn’t care about the baby at all. He wanted to hurt him.Pattinson: It shows a little negative part of Edward’s character. He deals with it in such a thoughtless way, and he lets his fear turn into anger. It was quite nice to play.Condon: And one of your strongest moments in the movie, too.
Both characters suddenly act differently than they ever have before.Pattinson: They shock each other. For a saga which is about eternal, undying love that nothing can touch, suddenly —Stewart: There’s one thing that can. That was fun to play. Bella’s always liked him and liked everything he said and thought everything he did was right. This is something that she clearly disagrees with. She doesn’t mindlessly and blindly follow him. She was always kind of defiant. I like that.
Here is where the movie takes a darker turn, right?Condon: Absolutely. You’re sort of desperate for it. Because you’ve got the wedding and the honeymoon, but there’s no conflict. Suddenly this happens, and Rob says, “Get that thing out of you.” All you have is one line, and that’s the rest of the movie. It’s right in that moment.

Jacob Watches Bella DrinkBella shoved the straw between her lips, squeezed her eyes shut, and wrinkled her nose. I could hear the blood slopping around in the cup again as her hand shook. She sipped at it for a second, and then moaned quietly with her eyes still closed.This is where Bella only wants to spend time with Jacob — because, as we later learn, her baby is already drawn to him.Condon: It’s like watching Raiders of the Lost Ark and the snakes are coming and there’s no way to get out. How is she going to get out of this (love) triangle? It seemed impossible to figure out any way in which Jacob wouldn’t be the loser. And then this other idea comes in. It’s definitely weird, but it’s clever. He always loved that baby and the baby always loved him.Stewart: I just get goose bumps!Pattinson: I have to say, it is pretty creepy. (Laughs)Stewart: But that’s why I loved playing up those moments. I savor all those creepy bits. Like when Jacob sits down on the couch and is like, “Don’t look at me like that.” She can’t help it.Pattinson: Oh! I didn’t even think about it the other way around as well (that the unborn baby is causing Bella to want to spend time with Jacob). Because I was like, What the fuck is this scene? This is insane. I would have broken up with you ages ago.Stewart: Dude, don’t you remember you’re listening to us yell at each other (later)? Jacob says, “Didn’t you want me around all the time?” And I’m like, “Yeah,” and he says, “Aren’t those feelings gone now?” And I’m like, “Long gone.”Pattinson: Ohhhhh, yeah.Stewart: (Gesturing to Pattinson) He’s lying. He knows all of this, he’s forgotten it!Pattinson: Oh, shush. (Laughs) Look, there are a lot of moments when Edward sort of acts like a pussy. I mean, throughout the whole series.Stewart: (Laughs) You can quote him on that.Pattinson: I’m sitting next to you and I’m like, “My wife is dying. I have completely fucked my life up and hers,” and JAcob’s like (to Bella), “Hey, baby, you don’t look too bad to me.” And I’m just sitting there, like, with a bucket collecting (Bella’s) vomit.Stewart: (Laughs) That’s literally what he’s doing.Pattinson: That really wouldn’t happen. I should have thrown the vomit at him.Stewart: Now that I’ve seen parts of it, Jacob and Bella’s chemistry in this movie is better than it’s ever been.Pattinson: (Faux-glares at Stewart) So uncool.Condon: The last scene we filmed was the dance scene between JAcob and Bella at the wedding. The last shot is Jacob leaving. I called “Cut!” and then Kristen yelled, “Jacob!” and hiked up her dress and started running after him into the woods, saying, “Come back! Don’t leave me!”Pattinson: That was one of the funniest things as well, leading Bella (out to dance with Jacob). Edward is an incredibly strange character, the more I think about it. That was one of those things that I had absolutely no idea how to play.Condon: But you played it great!Stewart: (to Pattinson) You had all these stimulations! You were like, “I need to play it liked this and this and that’s it.”
You were looking out for Edward.Pattinson: Yeah, ’cause I don’t want him to look like an idiot. There’s certain things…like when Jacob grabs her arms and won’t let go. And that’s at our wedding, before I’ve even danced with her! If that was reality, being a good man at that moment is going up and kicking the guy’s ass so hard that he won’t come back.Stewart: If that had happened in this story it would feel so wrong.Pattinson: Edward has a lot more foresight than the average person, which is one of the most heroic things about him. He also knows he’s going to turn her into a vampire, so it’s like, “You’re going to be screwed in a couple of weeks, buddy! Try and hit on her all you want!”

The End/The BeginningThe next sound jolted through me, un expected, terrifying. Like metal being shredded apart. The sound brought back the fight in the clearing so many months ago, the tearing sound of the newborn (vampires) being ripped apart. I glanced over to see Edward’s face pressed against the bulge. Vampire teeth — a surefire way to cut through vampire skin.Pattinson: Yup, we did that.Stewart: (to Condon) Did you put the sound effect in?Condon: Yes.Stewart: I can’t wait to listen for it.Pattinson: That was a fun conversation that day with Stephenie (Meyer). Trying to figure out the mechanics: What am I actually chewing through?Stewart: Oh, yeah, we had a whole conversation about that.
Was this birthing one you looked forward to shooting?Condon: Yeah, it actually was. That was the real horror. Weren’t those couple of nights amazing? Everything about it felt so real. It gave everyone kind of a boost.Stewart: It was like, We’re doing a fucking crazy movie, actually.Pattinson: Especially ’cause that could have ended up being the most ridiculous scene. I remember going into it thinking, Oh, buy, this is going to be something.

In this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, the stars of November’s The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 discuss how they approached key scenes in the film, from the tense walk down the aisle to the pillow-shredding honeymoon, to the bloody, ghastly climax.

Bella enjoys ”morning-after” eggs courtesy of new husband Edward on Isle Esme. ”I like the honeymoon scenes,” Robert Pattinson says, ”because it’s such a massive turnaround in Edward and Bella’s relationship.”

Jacob receives his invitation to the wedding. ”He’s still getting over losing out on Bella,” says Taylor Lautner. ”By the end he’s able to accept it and deal with it like a man.”

Preview of the article

Fans have waited years to see Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) tie the knot, and the wedding scene, scheduled for the end of production on The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, proved to be equally climactic for those involved. “It was one of the coolest things that I’ve done,” says Stewart. “There was a certain point when I walked on set, and I saw everyone from the entire cast sitting there in the pews, about to do their bit. And it was just so perfect for me in that moment. It was so emotional in such a real way. I literally felt like thanking them for coming.”

But filming wasn’t always quite so idyllic. As the stars and director tell EW, Breaking Dawn Part 1 and 2 (in theaters November 18 and November 2012) involved a grueling, globe-trotting shoot, and scenes far darker, bloodier, and more polarizing than any in the franchise so far. If audiences haven’t matured with the Twilight books, they’re about to grow up fast. “We shot everything — whether it’s the lovemaking or the childbirth — as potent and powerful as it can be,” says director Bill Condon, who knew he was working within the constraints of a PG-13 rating. “It will be interesting to see whether there will be people who think it too disturbing for this universe.” For her part, Stewart wishes the movie could have been even truer to the graphic nature of the book — not so much the honeymoon sequence (“It feels like a real love scene, not necessarily vampire-y, which is good”), but the brutal birth of the baby, Renesmee. “It’s funny because when [the PG-13 issue] comes up, everybody thinks it’s all about the sex,” she says. “The birth is really effective, and I’ve heard it really hits you in the face. But what it could have been? It could have been shocking and grotesque, because that’s how it was written in the book.” She sighs: “I would have loved to have been puking up blood.”

Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob, says that even being a member of the wolf pack didn’t have its privileges. “Everybody is always complaining to me that I don’t have to wear the contacts, I don’t have to wear the white makeup or wear wigs and all that stuff. And I’m like, ‘I’m the one in the freezing rain and cold not wearing a shirt! I paid my dues in New Moon and Eclipse.’” And as for his plot arc in Part 2, which will involve falling for — or imprinting on — Renesmee? “There were many times I walked up to Stephenie [Meyer] and asked her, ‘What exactly is imprinting?’” says Lautner. “It’s still a very confusing thing for me, so don’t ask.”

Interestingly, the elephant in the room turned out to be the least of anyone’s troubles. (As Pattinson puts it, “She was the most consistently professional creature I have ever worked with.”) It was the horses—two white Andalusians and two black Friesians—that turned out to be high-strung and unpredictable. “Reese grew up around horses,” says Lawrence, “and she owns a couple that she rides now, and even she was scared of them.” Says Witherspoon: “I’ve always been a little bit of a tomboy that way, so I just always enjoy the thrill of doing something dangerous.”

She got more than she wished for. Not only did she get thrown from a horse one day, Pattinson tells a story about shooting a scene in which one of the horses is lying down in a train car with Witherspoon curled up on the ground next to it when suddenly the horse jumped to its feet and stepped on her leg. “I could see in Reese’s face that it must have hurt more than anything, and she played it off like it was absolutely nothing,” says Pattinson. “And then the next day she had this enormous bruise. It could have quite easily broken her leg, but she didn’t mention it to anybody. She is just incredibly brave that way.”

Witherspoon’s toughness was one of the main reasons Lawrence cast her in the film. “What I liked is that there’s that determination, but there’s also a sense of humor and a sense of vulnerability. It must come from her family and upbringing. You sort of feel like if she sets her mind to something, it’s going to happen—nothing is going to get in her way. And that’s part of what keeps her interesting—and oddly a little dangerous.”

Pattinson, too, thinks there’s more to Witherspoon than meets the eye. “In terms of public perception, she’s thought of as America’s Sweetheart. And she kind of is in a lot of ways. But I think that she’s a lot bawdier than that, a lot more raucous. It did actually shock me to see that. She’s tough. You wouldn’t want to get into an argument with her at all.” He laughs.

“You can always tell that she will be incredibly nice to anyone who’s not an idiot, but it’s always very clear that there’s a line you really shouldn’t cross.” (When I tell Witherspoon that Pattinson said this, her response is classic Reese: “Oh, yeah. I’m a little junkyard dog.”)

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